How do you say in today's French, "It is not a dog"? "Ce n'est pas de chien" or "ce n'est pas chien" or something else?

How do you say in today's French, "It is not a strange thing"? "Ce n'est pas de chose étrange" or "ce n'est pas chose étrange"? If answers to 1 and 2 are different (one uses "pas de + noun" and the other "pas + noun") what accounts for the difference?

Assuming that today's form is "pas de + noun" for both 1 and 2, was "pas + noun" the usual form at the time of Perrault or is there some other explanation?

1 Answer
1

That would be: Ce n'est pas un chien; de chien would be used in il n'y a pas de chien (there is no dog), du chien in the dubious ce n'est pas du chien (that's not dog).

Standard French would be Ce n'est pas une chose étrange (chose is a regular sustantive). Poetical/literary might be Ce n'est pas chose étrange (chose is used here as an invariable word). See chose1 and chose2 in the tlfi.

Today's form is pas un. At the time of Perrault, the form without an article was probably more common but unlikely the usual one. In some cases, several forms are still possible:

Am I to understand that plus heureux is making two more forms available? That is to say, am I to understand: 1. There is only one way to say that there was no dog or no man, i.e. "il n'y a pas de chien" and "il n'y a pas d'homme." 2. But when the noun is modified by something like plus heureux then we get two more acceptable forms? Or do we get three forms only when the thing is homme? What is doing the trick?
– CatomicMay 10 '16 at 10:14